Ben’s Cancer Journey

Last year at 23 years of age, I was diagnosed with a chondroblastic osteosarcoma (a type of bone cancer), that is affecting my upper right jaw and sinuses. Both myself and my fiancée have gone from being in full time employment and planning our wedding, to being thrown head first into this unforgiving journey, and being unable to work, myself due to my health during treatment, and my fiancée due to both looking after me and her own mental health. Our lives have been turned upside down, having to travel up and down from Bristol weekly for my chemotherapy, as it is not available where we live in Plymouth, due to one of my chemotherapy drugs only being used in certain centers across the country. This has taken a huge emotional toll on both myself, my fiancée and our families, as well as an immense financial toll on top of it all.

We do have amazing emotional support from both family and friends, unfortunately I am now getting ready to face life altering surgery in Birmingham, one of five specialist centers in the country that are able to perform my surgery. The surgery is planned to involve the removal of half of my upper jaw, and the tumor in my sinuses, as well as a bone, muscle and nerve graft which is going to have to be taken from my hip and stomach, and then the reconstruction of my jaw. Post-op I still have a long journey of healing, speech therapy and recovery ahead of me.

As I'm sure you can understand, going through a 12 hour-plus surgery, with many risks, and no guarantee that my cancer will not return in the future, I both need and want my close family there with me, however we have been told there are no facilities available for any of them to stay near me during my surgery or hospital stay. We are no longer in a position to be able to fund this journey on our own as we have no wages coming in, any savings we did have, that we had planned to use towards our wedding are now gone, and with ongoing appointments, having to travel between Birmingham and Plymouth is not viable financially any more.

I hope that some of you have the kindness in your hearts to be able to help a young couple in their time of need. This worry is putting more stress on all of us than is needed through this already stressful journey. Any money that is left after my surgery and treatment is over will be used towards our wedding and creating memories both together, and with friends and family.

Thank you.